Finding help in the church

And so when the invitation to go to church came, in reality I was ready for anything that might help. The songs, the preaching, the seemingly friendly people, that was all great. But it was when I met the man Jesus Christ, a tough guy who talked so easily about love, who died on that cross, I soon fell in love with him. I remember the tears rolling down my face when they went to look for his body and he wasn't there - he had come back to life. It was about then, sitting on my bed reading my Good News Bible, that I simply said to Jesus that I would do anything for him, follow him, and give up anything just to be with him.

After a couple of years in the church, I realised I was going to need help to live the Christian life with purity. One night I was asleep in bed and felt a man lying on top of me; as I fought to wake up and fight him off, I realised, once I was fully awake, that there was no-one there. Becoming a Christian didn't mean sexual temptations disappeared - and there was now a spiritual battle going on.

So, one Sunday morning, I found a man in the church who I knew was into 'counselling' and I told him about myself. He tried to understand as best he could and said that we would meet for 'prayer counselling'. The first session involved me naming each person to God with whom I had had sex and asking God to forgive me; each time I did this, my body shook violently as a heavy weight seemed to be lifted from me. This was the start of the long process of healing, which is still continuing.